French-Canadian actor Jay Baruchel, 27, starred in Knocked Up and Tropic Thunder. This year he is animated teen Hiccup in How To Train Your Dragon, a romantic lead in Sheâs Out Of My League and the apprentice in The Sorcererâs Apprentice with
Nicolas Cage.

Jay Baruchel: Would only ever live in Canada

Not much of a big year for you, then?No kidding. Iâm sorry everyone. Iâm cramming myself down the worldâs throat this year.

Hiccup âfinds himselfâ thanks to his pet dragon. Can you identify with that?More than I care to admit. Iâm an odd bird. Iâm cut from a different cloth. I feel Iâm forever the outsider. I was also always the inside kid. My mother would constantly try and get me to go outside and play with the kids at the playground. I never wanted to because there was always something on TV I wanted to watch.

Were you the geek at school?Yes. Everyone tells you it will get better but it feels like itâs going to last a century. But as Iâve grown up, I see the stuff I hated myself for at high school is the stuff Iâm proudest of now. Thereâll be school friends crawling out of the woodwork this year. You know, the best day of my life was when I realised I actually only have about five or six friends and a s***load of acquaintances. I realised I donât have to hang out with people I donât like very much. I see my mother and sister every day, I live with two of my best friends.

Are you worried your lifeâs going to change?No. I live a pretty quiet, insular private life. When Iâm home, I rarely leave my neighbourhood.

Youâre having a bottom double for Sheâs Out Of My League. What makes a good screen bum?The least amount of red dots or ingrown hairs. And I guess the one that looked the closest to mine. I donât spend a lot of time looking at mine so have no idea what it looks like.

Whatâs the craziest thing youâve done for a woman?There was a very pretty girl I went out with five or six years ago who probably liked me more than I liked her and, to reconcile my guilt about that issue, I would always run whatever errands she wanted me to.

What sort of errands?Iâd get home at 3am and she would say something random like [in a British accent]: âJay, I want chocolate.â And Iâd be like: âYeah, OK, all right.â Iâd go and find chocolate at three oâclock in the f***ing morning.

Is she by any chance a Brit?She was real posh. Iâve done some time there. Her address contained neither street name, nor number, nor address. Very posh.

Why are there so many funny Canadians?Maybe because our medicine is free and we have more time to think about jokes, I guess. Also, Elizabeth is still our head of state so we just grew up with a hell of a lot of television from Britain.

What Brit TV did you like?My parents started showing me Monty Python when I was seven or eight and then I discovered Mr Bean when I was 12. Rowan Atkinson is my hero. My motherâs favourite things growing up were all the Carry On movies, Keeping Up Appearances, âAllo âAllo. We also have every TV show from America so we have this weird melding of the two senses of humour. Thatâs what Canada is to me. Thatâs why I could never live in the States and I could never live in Europe. I can only live in Canada.

Why?America is too American and Europe is too European. Canada is the only place for me.

Is that why you have a massive red Maple Leaf tattoo across your chest?Thatâs just a glimpse into how morbid my thought process is. Every time I leave Canada I assume I might die so I want them to know where to send my corpse.